Friday Night Fellowship

The new film, Friday Night Lights, based on journalist H.G. Bissinger's bestselling nonfiction book of the same name, follows the actual events of the Permian Panthers high school football team in the barren west Texas oil town of Odessa during their 1988 state championship season (review here). Both the book and the film adaptation document and dramatize the obsessiveness and cult status of high school football in rural Texas, in particular, in the boom-and-bust town of Odessa where winning is everything. Indeed, I can attest to the fact that in every Texas town on Friday nights during high school football season, everyone, and I mean everyone including the mayor, is sitting somewhere in the stadium bleachers rooting on the home team. It's the only game in town. But it's more than that. Friday night football games in the Lone Star State are more akin to Sunday morning worship service. An informal state religion really and a mandatory part of one's civic duty as a citizen of the Republic of Texas. The book (and film) document the 1988 season. I actually remember that year and the divisional playoff game between the very same Odessa Permian team and my high school alma mater, Nimitz. With our star running back, we nearly pulled off the upset. Not quite though. Should be interesting watching the movie knowing that our school was involved in one of Permian's playoff games that year.